Douglas’s next phase in the Strategic Plan

Moving the Faculty of Child, Family & Community Studies

    

Maria Asselin-Roy
Staff Reporter

S part of a Strategic Plan to meet
A« social, cultural, and economic

needs of students and become “the
largest and most progressive baccalaureate -
degree-granting college in British
Columbia,” the Faculty of Child, Family,
and Community Studies (CFCS) is planned
to be moved to the David Lam campus by
the fall semester of 2012.

Last week, a forum was held for all
affected students in the CFCS faculty.
Students were invited to hear first-hand
about and discuss the Strategic Plan
decisions, why they were made, and whom

_ they affect.

Blaine Jensen, the Vice President of
Educational Services at Douglas College,
explains the changes, saying that this
year, Douglas has accepted 1,500 more
full-time students, and that Douglas is the
only college in the school system that is
growing. With this expansion, Douglas
College representatives are looking at what
the college is currently offering, which
programs are growing, where the student
demand lies, and where the employment
demand lies.

With classroom space in New West
full — in large part due to the fact that in-
demand four-year degrees are primarily
offered at the New West campus — there is
no more room to expand. In order to solve
this problem, the college took a look at the
student numbers at the David Lam campus,
which is currently at about 75 per cent of its
classroom capacity.

One major aspect that was taken into
consideration was which programs and
degrees could be moved to David Lam

. without affecting the ability to grow in the

areas that are in demand. Jensen states that
this was where the Plan members began
looking at which faculty was movable,

and the Faculty of Child, Family, and
Community Studies (CFCS) stood out as an
option.

Programs in the CFCS are popular
and provide employment in specialized
areas. As Jensen says “Agencies send us
people who are interested in these programs
because Douglas is well known for these
areas. They are destination programs and
they are self-contained. They don’t require
a lot of university transfer service courses
from Humanities and Social Sciences and
all of that.” Another benefit of moving the
faculty of Child, Family, and Community
Studies is that it is the smallest of the six
faculties offered at Douglas. The faculty
has about 850 full-time students, and 140 of
those students are already at David Lam for
Therapeutic Recreation.

4

 

However, Jensen also notes that Plan
members looked at where those students
were coming from before any decisions are
made. They noted that the majority of those
students came from the Tri-Cities area, so
many are in between the two campuses.
There are also many students in the CFCS
that travel from Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows
and Maple Ridge. Plan members also had to

   

technologies would be needed. However,
since Health Sciences students are already
at David Lam, the technologies will be
accessible to the CFCS faculty as well.
Moreover, moving the CFCS faculty
to the Coquitlam campus will help increase
the numbers at David Lam, while slightly
lowering the numbers at New West.
However, Jensen claims “We think that

“Moving the CFCS faculty over to David Lam will make a big impact on the
Coquitlam campus. Normally, additional technologies would be needed.
However, since Health Sciences students are already at David Lam, the

technologies will be accessible to the CFCS faculty as well.”

consider moving the administrative offices,
so there can be CFCS administration at
David Lam while making more classroom
space.
Moving the CFCS faculty over to
David Lam will make a big impact on the
Coquitlam campus. Normally, additional

in two or three years, both campuses will
be full. At that point in time we will meet
the qualifications to go to the government
and say that we need more buildings for
expansion.”

The Strategic Plan may have come as
a shock to many students as it does seem

 

quite sudden. However, this plan has.been
out for over one year. Once enough work
and information was gathered to show that
this faculty move could be made, all of
the information came together in July. The
Senior Management Team of the college
synthesized the information, went to the
board to receive approval, and engaged the
Dean, faculty, and students in August.
Moving faculties has been done
successfully before. For example, all Health
Sciences and Continuing Education were
moved over to David Lam, which proved
to help balance out the two campuses.
However, Jensen says that “There are going
to be some people who are concerned
that they’ ve started in a program and they
expected to be in New West, and next year
they will have to start in Coquitlam. We
have empathy for that, and we will see what
we can do to accommodate them.”